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The phone is a remarkably complex, simple device,
and very rarely ever needs repairs, once you fix them. Dan/Panther

Just bought a nice '59 princess last night ( a bargain!!!) and I sent this e-mail....hope it works They replied "will do"...hopefully they "will do"

Hi. I bought and have paid for the phone and also added insurance. Please do me a favor and when packing do not send the phone hung up on the base as these phones are very delicate and it will most likely crack. Instead please wrap the base and the handset separately as this will help to minimize damage. The extra effort will be most appreciated. Not disrespecting your packing ability as you have excellent feedback but if you are not a phone collector you wouldn't realize how fragile these older phones are and I have had a few break in transit. Thanks in advance Joel

Just so everyone knows. the seller is responsible for insurance in the shipping quote they give you. eBay made the seller responsible at the beginning of the year. So buyers, you do not have to add extra money for insurance.....Doug (seller Jflowres)

It is important that the phone be packed so that it will not move within the box and so that it will not be crushed by the weight of other boxes. A while back, I posted about a 1949 Leich convertible bakelite phone that arrived crushed because it was packed on it side in a flimsy box which was only slightly deeper that the width of the phone. The shell of the phone bore most of the weight of the boxes on top of it. The seller refunded my money for that phone also.

Once this shell is clean, I plan to try to glue back the pieces which are salvageable. Some parts of the shell were crushed into tiny bits, and I think that other pieces may have fallen out of the box, because there are a few parts unaccounted for.

Just so everyone knows. the seller is responsible for insurance in the shipping quote they give you. eBay made the seller responsible at the beginning of the year. So buyers, you do not have to add extra money for insurance.....Doug (seller Jflowres)

Hmmmmmm then I paid double insurance Maybe they will reimburse me? Yeah right maybe they will have Santa hand deliver the reimbursement. Oh well...live and learn. Thanks Doug.

Just so everyone knows. the seller is responsible for insurance in the shipping quote they give you. eBay made the seller responsible at the beginning of the year. So buyers, you do not have to add extra money for insurance.....Doug (seller Jflowres)

Hmmmmmm then I paid double insurance Maybe they will reimburse me? Yeah right maybe they will have Santa hand deliver the reimbursement. Oh well...live and learn. Thanks Doug.

Go to eBay on it, shipping includes insurance on all items sold on eBay.....Doug

Dan....it is up to the seller to guarantee it to your door. If it is damaged, seller has to refund your money and shipping. Most sellers, myself included, add extra to the shipping to cover insurance. I say in my ads, shipping and insurance are $xx.xx Its better than the old days as a seller, when something was damaged in the mail and the buyer went back to eBay/Paypal and got all their money back. Even when I had emails stating the the buyer DID NOT want insurance. eBay is heavily loaded against the seller. We have never had eBay/Paypal rule in our favor. Not once, buyer is always right, no matter what....Doug

We all continue to shake our heads in collective disbelief at the crass and careless way some sellers pack phones for shipment, even after we have made agonizing efforts to explain to them how to do it properly. Here's my latest sad story: Last year, I bought a really rare W.E. 602C Data Phone, and implored the seller to use plenty of bubble-wrap and a good large carton. He was miffed that I would question his ability to correctly pack a box, as he was "a professional". Well, the pictures below show what I received. The box he used was only about an inch larger than the contents, and his "packing material" consisted of a few wadded up pieces of paper. As this Data Phone is really heavy, and the front plastic cover is thin and fragile, it didn't take a lot of cafefully-orchestrated gymnastics by our friends at the USPS to trash it. Now, I can add a replacement front cover to my list of "Unobtainable Things To Search For".

Yeah, a refund, which might help reduce the pain, still can't compensate for the ruin of something that has survived unharmed for decades. I've tried all the previously-suggested methods to convey the seriousness to sellers, but in the end it's still a crapshoot.

Looking at the photo reminded me that the Data Sets were from a large purchase from Alberta. There were a number of different variations, so hopefully they'll have the configuration you need. You obviously need to be careful about getting severely sun-tanned parts! Good luck!

Several of us stopped at Phoneco "on the way home" from a phone show in Bloomington. (OK, we took the REAL scenic route.) It was an experience. I encourage all collectors to make the visit while we still have the opportunity.